History Main / CompromisingMemoirs

This trope covers memoirs as a plot device, not a framing device; that is, examples should be where the Compromising Memoirs are the subject of the plot, not just examples ''of'' Compromising Memoirs. For this reason (and also for reasons of [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment cautious editing judgment and avoiding unnecessary arguments]]), avoid including RealLife examples. However, there can be some overlap between the two; for instance, an example involving a character's Compromising Memoirs which includes in-universe excerpts from them is acceptable.

* The ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" begins with Watson saying that if the person who tried to get at his case-notes does it again, he will reveal the whole story of "[[NoodleImplements the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant]]" to the public. Several other stories have mention in the foreword that Watson deliberately delayed publishing them until after the death of the principals of the case so that they could not be harmed by any possible scandal. One other story featured a woman trying to get a hold of a deceased ex-lover's memoirs so that she could destroy anything that referenced her.

* Discussed in at least one Literature/SherlockHolmes story. The stories are, of course, framed as Dr Watson's memoirs of Holmes's investigations, and at the beginning of "The Veiled Lodger" Watson reveals that he has notes from all of Holmes's cases. However, many of which will never be published because, for whatever reason, someone involved has asked him to keep them private. Watson confirms that he's perfectly happy to go along with any reasonable request for confidentiality, but that apparently one individual has been behind some attempts at burglary to get at Watson's notes... and that if said individual doesn't knock it off quick-sharp, the world will soon learn more about "[[NoodleIncident the affair of]] [[NoodleImplements the politician, the lighthouse and the trained cormorant]]" than this individual would presumably like. Apparently at least one person in-universe is worried about Watson writing one of these, and his or her attempts at preventing this [[SelfFulfillingProphecy lead Watson to threaten to write it]].

* The fact that professional politicians also tend to stereotypically be the kind of two-faced hypocrites and egomaniacs who will eagerly latch onto any opportunity to write a version of history that [[WrittenByTheWinners makes them look as good as possible while simultaneously allowing them to paint their many enemies in the worst possible light]].

This trope covers memoirs as a plot device, not a framing device; that is, examples should be where the Compromising Memoirs are the subject of the plot, not just examples ''of'' Compromising Memoirs. For this reason (and also for reasons of [[RulesOfCautiousEditingJudgment cautious editing judgment and avoiding unnecessary arguments]]), avoid including RealLife examples. However, there can be some overlap between the two; for instance, an example involving a character's Compromising Memoirs which includes in-universe excerpts from them is acceptable.

This covers Memoirs as a plot device, not a framing device. However there can be overlap. For example one of the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' short stories starts with a note to the effect that, while Dr Watson has no interest in publishing a specific case due to the scandal it will cause, he ''will'' if people keep trying to steal his notes, meaning that someone in universe considers his writings to be an example.

This covers Memoirs as a plot device, not a framing device. However there can be overlap. For example one of the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' short stories starts with a note to the effect that, while he has no interest in publishing a specific case due to the scandal it will cause he WILL if people keep trying to steal his notes, meaning that someone in universe considers his writings to be an example.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that Steve Wagner had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, Wagner once beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs (she wasn't going to give names but he didn't took chances).

* ''Literature/ZombiesOfTheGenePool'' centers around a group of young sci-fi fans who imagined themselves up-and-coming legends (though only some of them became famous, most did find some measure of success in life). The group's prodigal son, Pat Malone, became infamous for righting a memoir called ''The Last Fandango'' that was a scathing indictment of the SF community and its hypocrisies. Then he turns up at a reunion of his old friends, implying that he's looking to write a sequel that will expose some of '''their''' secrets...and the next morning he's found murdered in his hotel room.

* ''[[Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun Zombies of the Gene Pool]]'' centers around a group of young sci-fi fans who imagined themselves up-and-coming legends (though only some of them became famous, most did find some measure of success in life). The group's prodigal son, Pat Malone, became infamous for righting a memoir called ''The Last Fandango'' that was a scathing indictment of the SF community and its hypocrisies. Then he turns up at a reunion of his old friends, implying that he's looking to write a sequel that will expose some of '''their''' secrets...and the next morning he's found murdered in his hotel room.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "Mr. Monk and the Astronaut", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that Steve Wagner had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, Wagner once beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs.

* ''Literature/TheLaundrySeries'' novels by Creator/CharlesStross have a FramingDevice of being Bob Howard's memoirs. They come with disclaimers indicating that they are classified under the Official Secrets Act as well as code word classified under the titles InUniverse. In ''The Apocalypse Codex'', the characters talk about the dreadful situation the world would need to be in for the memoirs to be made public.

* As mentioned above, the ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" begins with Watson saying that if the person who tried to get at his case-notes does it again, he will reveal the whole story of "[[NoodleImplements the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant]]" to the public. Several other stories have mention in the foreword that Watson deliberately delayed publishing them until after the death of the principals of the case so that they could not be harmed by any possible scandal. One other story featured a woman trying to get a hold of a deceased ex-lover's memoirs so that she could destroy anything that referenced her.

* In ''{{Atonement}}'', Briony states that she would have to wait until after her cousin Lola died before she could publish her memoirs, [[spoiler:specifically, the truth about who really raped Lola and the fates of Cecilia and Robbie]].

* In "Mr. Series/{{Monk}} and the Astronaut", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that Steve Wagner had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, Wagner once beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs.

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* Literature/CiaphasCain's unofficial memoirs are classified and available only to inquisitors. They don't want everyone to find out that many of the [[FakeUltimateHero HERO OF THE IMPERIUM's]] more famous actions were motivated by cowardice ([[UnreliableNarrator according to him, anyway]]). Cain's ''official'' memoirs are apparently propaganda and nonsense.

* Literature/CiaphasCain's unofficial memoirs are classified and available only to inquisitors. His ''official'' ones are apparently propaganda and nonsense.

* In ''YesPrimeMinister'', the former Prime Minister writes his memoirs and Hacker tries to bar the parts that make him look bad from publication.

* Very briefly used on ''TheWestWing''. As President Bartlett is just about to leave office, there's a train crash and two state governors squabble about who has to deal with it. Bartlett calls one of them and threatens that he's about to earn a paragraph in his soon to be written memoirs. The governor immediately backs down.

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* A subversion of this trope is the basis for the IdiotPlot in ''Film/BurnAfterReading''. A self-important disgruntled CIA agent plans to release his memoirs, which are nothing like as scandalous to the agency as he believes. But then a bunch of other people mistake the memoirs for valuable "spy shit".

* A subversion of this trope is the basis for the IdiotPlot in ''BurnAfterReading''. A self-important disgruntled CIA agent plans to release his memoirs, which are nothing like as scandalous to the agency as he believes. But then a bunch of other people mistake the memoirs for valuable "spy shit".

* In "Mr. {{Monk}} and the Astronaut", Monk at first thinks the motive for the murder is that the astronaut had an affair with the victim, an actress, but it turns out his wife knows all about the affair and has forgiven him. Then Monk finds out that [[spoiler: when they were seeing each other, the astronaut once beat the actress so badly she ended up in the hospital]], and she was going to reveal it in her memoirs.

* The ''{{Spooks}}'' episode "The Rose Bed Memoirs".

* CiaphasCain's unofficial memoirs are classified and available only to inquisitors. His ''official'' ones are apparently propaganda and nonsense.

* A subversion of this trope is the basis for the IdiotPlot in ''BurnAfterReading''. A self-important disgruntled CIA agent plans to release his memoirs, which are probably not as scandalous to the agency as he believes. But then a bunch of other people mistake the memoirs for "valuable spy stuff".